hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. to a big story in the us now. it seems like apple's electric ambitions have hit a major speed bump. the company has reportedly begun winding down its team dedicated to manufacturing electric cars. our north america business correspondent michelle fleury has the latest from new york. apple started out with lofty ambitions. for years, it was rumoured that it wanted to build its own electric car, one without a steering wheel or any pedals, a true driverless experience. but after spending billions of dollars on the decade—long project, it now appears the iphone maker, well, it's abandoning it altogether. we reached out to apple for comment, but we haven't heard back from them yet.

the team working on the project were told the iphone giant was shifting its focus to ai. in fact, some of the people who worked on the car will be moved to apple's artificial intelligence division — that's according to bloomberg — while those who can't find jobs elsewhere in the company, they face lay—offs. apple shares rose nearly 1% on the news. as one tech analyst put it, by abandoning its dream to transform the auto industry, it will increase pressure on apple to do something profound in the area of generative ai. staying with tech, and people tend to associate us company nvidia with chips and artificial intelligence — but not necessarily with retail. azita martin leads nvidia's ai initiatives for the retail industry, including generative ai — that can produce content like text, images or other data when prompted. our north america business correspondent erin delmore asked her about how ai is changing the shopping experience for customers, both in store and online. ai enables you to really have a complete view of the customer and be able

to really offer them promotions and products that are personalised and tailored to their needs. and so here's when generative ai comes in. one of my favourite applications for generative ai that...a lot of retailers are implementing is what we call a shopping adviser. and the way i describe it is, "imagine taking the absolute "best sales associate that you have in your company "and replicating that on your mobile and e—commerce site." so if i'm the customer, do i know that i'm being treated to a personalised ai shopping experience here or not? chatbots in the past have not been very smart, right? and what generative ai allows you to do is truly train them not only with your products, but the characteristics of your product, right? so if i come in and i say that i'm looking for a red top

for a summer party that i'm going to, it looks at my previous shopping experience and shopping habits. it knows that i like certain styles and not every single red product, so the products that it recommends to me are tailored towards my preferences and my style and what i bought in the past. and how about from the store's point of view? because i can see how the personal shopping experience can be attractive to customers. how is genai helping stores run their businesses in other ways? so there's a lot of computer vision technology right now that is being used inside the stores, and that is to give retailers an idea of heatmaps — like, where are most of the customers spending their time? or what is the path? so if they go and buy certain things, what's the next place they go to? that allows them to actually optimise merchandising

in the layout of the stores. azita, have we seen a moment like this before? a lot of publications called it the iphone moment, right? i mean, if you look at it, iphone changed the consumer world, right? we weren't used to having our emails at our fingertips. you know, photography was a hobby. now it's part of our everyday life. you know, i think that this is the iphone moment of ai. staying with the semiconductor industry, let's focus on tsmc and its overseas expansion. taiwan's chip manufacturer opened its first factory injapan over the weekend, with a second plant due by the end of 2027. factories in arizona were announced four years ago, but the opening of two factories there have been derailed by labour shortages. meanwhile, it's also building a factory in the german city of dresden. i spoke with jason hsu from the harvard kennedy school, who weighed in on tsmc�*s overseas ventures.

tsmc�*s japan venture is a breakthrough in the international expansion. knowing the arizona project started in the year 2022, and it has been delayed and delayed, and however, japan started slower but it has received huge support not only from the japanese government also from the tsmc itself too. we can see a strong shift that tsmc is going to double down on its japan expansion as well as elsewhere, where's the arizona

efforts have been delayed, challenges. iii efforts have been delayed, challenges.— challenges. if you could elaborate was - challenges. if you could l elaborate was going with arizona and the plants plans there. , ., ., , there. the situation is the preject has _ there. the situation is the project has been rather i project has been rather complicated. it broke ground into some 2022, but over the course of the last year, it has met with labour shortage, union issues, and then most recently it has not been able to confirm the subsidy that you will get from the chips act, which boasted $52 billion. everyday going by, the machine is not running, the factory is not operating, it's another day of loss for tsmc, so tsmc have been having to reallocate some of its manpower and resources to other projects, such as japan, and so we see the kumamoto has accelerated the pace and also the japanese government has confirmed a 4.8 billion us dollars in subsidies to support tsmc�*s japanese expansion. so, compare with arizona, you can see japan is faster and more efficient, which means tsmc would likely

reallocate more resources in japan. in other news making headlines... playstation has announced it will slash 900 jobs globally and close its london studio, which develops virtual reality games. its boss, jim ryan, described the move as an "incredibly difficult decision". the tech industry has recently suffered a wave ofjob cuts. last month, its rival microsoft said it was laying off nearly 2,000 people from its gaming division. beyond meat has unveiled plans to slash costs and increase prices of its plant—based meat products this year. the price hikes will be across some of its product lines and will begin in the second quarter of this year. the moves come amid falling demand in the us forfaux meat. hong kong's financial chief is scheduled to give his annual budget address today. paul chan will have some tough decisions to make. the struggling financial hub is expected to face a deficit of nearly $13 billion. my colleague monica miller

sent this preview. hong kong is still feeling the malaise of a post—pandemic recovery and the impact of china's sluggish economy. its finance chief paul chan has described the delicate balance of boosting revenue and cutting spending. but he's already starting in the red, as public spending outstrips revenue. back in october, city officials said that the fiscal budget ending on the 1st of march could exceed almost $13 billion, the second consecutive year with a deficit. a couple of areas that could be prominent in the budget, one big sector is real estate. property prices in hong kong rank among the most expensive in the world. with the hong kong dollar pegged to the us dollar, interest rates are at a high level. housing prices have lost nearly 20% of their value over the last three years, and that's keeping the potential buyers at bay. a further relaxation of property stamp duties could bring in new sales, but that would also lower the revenue for the city.

meanwhile, property developers want the government to scrap its property cooling measures, saying that has failed to provide the housing market. next, the stock market, which is losing its appeal in the region. some analysts say china's deteriorating economic performance is to blame. lastjanuary, india overtook hong kong as the world's fourth—largest stock market, as investors bet on south asia's red—hot economy. the business community will be looking for the financial chief to address ways to restore confidence in the financial hub. at the end of the day, for short—term and long—term prospects to improve, hong kong needs to get its fiscal house in order. that budget speech is scheduled for ”am local time — that's 0300 gmt. one more thing — we're due to get hong kong's growth figures for the fourth quarter and all of last year, at the end of the day.

before we go, some news in the crypto currency space. bitcoin has hit a two—year high, breaking above the $57,000 per token. the gains are due to a big investment in the cryptocurrency from software firm microstrategy. it's also is benefitting from the recent approval of bitcoin—owning exchange traded funds — also known as etfs — in the united states. and that's it for this edition of asia business report. bye for now. different stories from across the uk. kimmy has completely transformed my life, if i'm honest. like, ifeel like a different person now. i'm less anxious, i'm less feel, less isolated, i'm less anxious, i feel less isolated, less vulnerable. these two have become

inseparable over the past year. wherever you find suze, kimmy is sure to be there, providing practical and emotional support. no better is that demonstrated than at home. suze has had cochlear implants for more than two years, but she needs time without them. when you're deaf, like, it can be quite overstimulating, sort of like sensory overload. i think people don't understand that. it's really hard and it's exhausting. actually, i like that time, like, in my bubble, which i can do now. it means that she can actually relax, as kimmy is there to alert her to the door bell and a variety of alarms. suze's health issues have often affected her in competition, like tokyo 2020, where she had to pull out after just two races. but becoming world champion last year has boosted her confidence and made her even more determined to get to paris this summer.

hey, i'm stephen with the catch up. we're starting with the reality of young people and their drug debts — and a warning, you might find some of the details distressing. a bbc investigation has been told that some teenagers in northern ireland are being forced into sex acts to reduce the amount they owe. others are told to get involved in rioting, which can cut their debts by up to £80. we've been hearing from one person who started taking drugs at 11. we can't show his face for his own safety. i was afraid to even leave the house. did you tell your family, did you tell anyone? no. sure couldn't. so how did you clear your debt? i stole money. you can watch the full documentary called drugs: in debt and danger

on the bbc iplayer. and if you've been affected by any of this, you can get help and support on bbc action line. some other stories now, and taylor swift's dad has been accused of assaulting a photographer. a video's going around of scott swift walking with taylor, who's covered by an umbrella, after her gig in sydney. a photographer says he was hit in the face. taylor's team says two people were behaving aggressively towards them. and songs by harry styles and adele could start disappearing from tiktok. it's part of a huge row with universal music group, which lots of big artists are signed to. the label isn't happy with how much the app is paying for its music. and we're going to leave you with ten seconds of a chocolate wonderland... ..or not. this is the willy wonka experience in glasgow — it was supposed to capture some of the magic of the movie. but people were so disappointed, they called the police and demanded refunds. it looks like a bit of a disaster, doesn't it? you're all caught up —

have a great night! hello and welcome to sportsday with me, will perry. coming up on the programme: six of the best for manchester city, five for erling haaland, as they thrash luton to reach

the fa cup quarterfinals. after an unpredictable and eventful few weeks, formula i revs up for a new season — we look ahead to what's in store. and we hear from the 100—year—old golfer who had a special message from rory mcilroy. good to have good to have you good to have you with good to have you with us. it was the erling haaland show at kenilworth road, as the fa cup holders manchester city cruised into the quarterfinals with a 6—2 win over luton. haaland scored five times for the visitors, hat—trick number eight for the norwegian in a city shirt. kevin de bruyne set up four of them for him. matteo kovacic scored city's sixth of the night. it's now 79 goals in 83 games for haaland as a city player.